Scotland and England locked horns yesterday in the only ODI at Edinburgh. The match turned out to be a run-fest as bowlers haplessly tried their hearts out. Eventually, it was the Scotts who romped past the winning line by 6 runs in a virtual humdinger. Eoin Morgan, the English skipper, won the toss and elected to bat first on a wicket, which seemed no less than a bowler’s graveyard.

The decision boomeranged as the hosts racked up their highest ODI score of 371/5 versus a potent bowling attack. Callum MacLeod caned them with a knock of 140 runs from 94 balls, which helped Scotland set the daunting target for Morgan’s men to track down. Johnny Bairstow went hell for leather and raced away to 105 runs in 59 deliveries, with 12 boundaries and three sixes.

The knock seemed to have ripped the heart out of the Scotts, but the likes of Alasdair Evans, Mark Watt and Richie Berrington held their nerves and halted England’s surge. Moeen Ali and Liam Plunkett played well but couldn’t help their team evade a defeat.

“Hopefully we can learn”- Morgan

Quite rightly, Morgan heaped praises on the Scotts while admitting England’s below-par show. “Scotland played extremely well. They brought their best game and we didn’t,” the 31-year old cricketer was quoted as saying by BBC Sport.

“We will make mistakes. Today we made mistakes and hopefully, we can learn from them. Our bowling strayed a little bit and, on a belting wicket, we got punished,” Morgan remarked while pledging to make amends for the poor show.

Nevertheless, the captain was delighted by Johnny Bairstow’s masterclass, which put England on the driver’s seat. “Bairstow was exceptional and we looked like chasing it but a few errors hurt us,” he added.

Meanwhile, he also mentioned the match to be a useful one ahead of their clashes against Ashes rivals in Australia for the ODI and T20I series. “Today was a really good run out. Usually, leading into a series we have a few days of training, then straight into it. Hopefully, we will learn going into Wednesday’s game,” Morgan iterated.